A communication network may, for example, provide a network connection that allows data to be transferred between two geographically remote locations. A network may include network elements connected by links. The network elements may be any type of managed device on the network, including routers, access servers, switches, bridges, hubs, IP telephones, IP video cameras, computer hosts, and printers. Network elements can be physical or logical and can communicate with one another via interconnected links.
Network operation may be impaired for different reasons. For example, component failure, including link failures or network element failure, may cause operational flaws in the network. Network operational flaws may also be caused by misconfiguration or malfunction of network elements or congestion in the network.
Networks may provide clients with statistics, reports, and other information related to their elements and their performance. For example, clients may wish to see how much their traffic is delayed by the network, whether the service is meeting service level agreements, whether the network elements are functioning as intended, etc. Such performance information helps to discover operational flaws in the network.
Network management servers may use performance metrics that provide information about network performance. To collect metrics, a standard protocol, such as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), may be used. SNMP is part of the Internet Protocol Suite as defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It includes of a set of standards for network management, including an application layer protocol, a database schema, and a set of data objects.
The database schema SNMP uses a management information base (MIB). The MIB describes network objects. The objects can be specified by object identifiers (OID). An object can include one or more object instances.
SNMP may support a query providing for discovery of the instances available for an object. The instances may be identified by suffixes to the object identifiers. The instance identifier may be used to retrieve metric values for the instance. Performance metric values stored in a database may be used to determine if there is an operational flaw with the corresponding object instance.